Betrayal
by Ghibly101
Summary: "You think we're just some little slaves, that oh so obediently follow you around; something disposable, to twist and betray whenever it suits you? Yeah, that's right Max: we know your secret, you lying little traitor!" Wait, what? Now, Max is homeless, flock-less, and the school is after her again. Lovely.
1. Chapter 1

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**Note: yes this is overused, however, I just need a starting idea and I can make it into a pretty decent story. This is my first fanfic, so take it easy on me.**

Chapter One

_Max_

It was a great day of flying, and the flock and I were dusting ourselves off, and getting ready for dinner. I started to clean up the mess that was our living room, something I tried to do at least once a week, since the eraser/flyboy attacks were more and more common, usually leaving the house looking like a tornado ran through it. I brushed up broken glass, probably from some shattered lamp. Then I noticed the silence and weirdness emanating from the other side of the room. It wasn't the weirdness that was weird, but the lack of stuff that was weird. Nudge was lacking her usual chattiness and energy, Angel was acting like a normal, though somewhat depressed, eight-year-old, Gazzy wasn't farting or talking pyrotechnics with Iggy, and Fang was without his emotionless brick wall mask. And they were all in the same room. Something was _definitely_ up.

"Somebody spill it, this is getting creepy," I half muttered, half ordered them. They all shift uncomfortably; avoiding my stern gaze, then Angel speaks up.

She sighed, then met my glare head on, "You think we're just some little slaves, that oh so obediently follow you around; something disposable, to twist and betray whenever it suits you? Yeah, that's right Max: we know your secret, you lying little traitor!" _Wait, what?_

"What the hell are you talking about, Ange? Secret? Traitor? Slaves! What the hell?" I screech.

"You think we're really that stupid? We know you've been telling Itex all about us, our location. Why else would there be so many Flyboy and Eraser attacks? Oh, and that bag you've been packing. You were gonna sneak away, were you?" she asked, rage filling her tone.

"What the hell are you talking about? Sneaking away, a spy for Itex-" I tried to interrupt, but she just kept going. I realized the bag she was talking about were my emergency bags: a couple of large backpacks stuffed with clothes and other necessities shoved into caves, one due north and one south-southeast of our home, which I was currently being rejected from.

"Well guess what you traitorous bitch: you are officially kicked out of the flock. Ha, now what's it like to be abandoned? We just got to it first. Oh, and don't bother getting your stuff, I've already taken the liberty to burn it." Angel wasn't acting like her namesake at all. She was being mean, cruel, and vengeful.

"Guys, what is she talking about? She's crazy, right?" I asked nervously, afraid of the answer. I stared. They stared. And started to shuffle towards Angel. Nudge and Gazzy had tears in their eyes, Iggy looked resigned, Fang had his emotionless brick wall face on, but Angel seemed almost smug. Correction: Angel looked very smug.

"I'm sorry Max, but we can't live with a traitor." said Nudge. _My _Nudge. Gazzy, Fang, and Iggy nodded in agreement. Angel's smile, which was getting less and less angelic, matched her current state of mind.

"Sorry girl, but you're getting outta here, cuz we," she gestured to the remaining flock, "Care deeply about each other and would never betray our family, you stupid, arrogant backstabber. Don't you dare come back or you will pay."

Iggy stared at me for a moment, then wrinkled his nose in disgust, "How could you, Max? How could you?"

"Fang?" I timidly asked. His silence mixed with his disgusted glare, spoke eons. And then I realized it: they truly thought I was a spy and didn't want me there. _Ever_. "You know, Fine. I'll go. But you will regret this. You truly will. I'm your best fighter, your leader, and the most loyal one here. Remember that in a couple of years when you come crying to me about how you got asses kicked, I won't give a damn about you and your merry little flock. Goodbye!" I practically screeched, then ran for the nearest window and jumped out. I let a single thought slide out of my mental barriers: I hate you, Angel, I really do.

**So what do you think of chapter one? Leave a review of what you thought about it. I'm willing to release a chapter once or twice a week and I'll try to set dates to have chapters done by chapter four. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**Last time, I only finished the clichéd part; now let's see what happened to Max?**

Chapter Two

_Max_

When I'm hurt, I fly. I'm flying as far and as fast as I can away from the traitors I called my family. I had stood up for them, protected them, and cared for them and now they discard me like a used rag. I ignore my sonic boom and fly, fly, fly, trying to forget all those years of fun, togetherness, and the only family I had ever known. Then came a mental slide show of my life with the flock: Iggy ignoring me, Iggy shredding my favorites jeans for an extra-long fuse, the look on his face after hearing an explosion, then his disgusted face asking me "How could you?"

Nudge smiling sweetly, her as the fully functioning Nudge Channel, the dang adorableness that came with the bloodlust and adrenaline from a fight and the distrust in her eyes as she told me she couldn't live with a traitor.

Then came Gazzy, with his innocent adorableness, the loveable pyrotechnic and his ridiculously bad farts that ruined many a family meal, who when confronted by the choice between me and Angel, scooted over towards her, avoiding my eyes.

I barely notice the tears streaming down my face.

Then there was Fang. Him telling me stupid fart jokes in the school, us sparring happily as kids, our first real kiss, me leading the flock with him by my side, a supporter, a shoulder to cry on, a boyfriend. All such good memories, but then the heartbreaking moment that ruined them: his disgusted glare as he looked at me like a squash bug he wanted to get rid of. In that moment my heart shattered.

Finally, there was Angel. The cute little winged baby I held in my arms, her as a toddler looking very angelic as she chose her name, me comforting her as she cried on my shoulder when out pet rabbit was killed by a fox, her and I walking away from a fight hand in hand. All Angel, all happiness. All that love boiled down to nothing, coming home to my little baby accusing me of being a spy and throwing me away like a used Kleenex. It was somewhat reminiscent of her trying to take control of the flock but A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE!

Wait… her trying to take control of the flock? That bitch!

But there was one thing I noticed: the flock didn't have the glassy eyed stares people get when under Angel's influence. They truly wanted me gone. And now they were dead to me. I heard a familiar band and looked down to see the bright red stain spread across the chest of my pastel blue shirt.

_Shit._

** I'm sorry it's really short. I'll try to post another one before the end of the day. To me that's midnight. Just sayin'. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**I just (stupidly) did the salt and ice challenge and the blisters are making it hard for me to type, but oh well. It will soon be on YouTube, check it out on my (and my friends) channel. **

Chapter Three

_Max_

My head aches, my chest kills, and I have no idea where I am. I've been switching in and out of consciousness for who knows how long. I feel a cool sensation in my chest and my eyes flicker open. I'm in the woods somewhere with a guy leaning over me, his hands on my bloodstained chest. Everything was too fuzzy for me to really see anything. I think he looked at me before I blacked out again.

When I woke up, I was in a nondescript cave and my body only ached where it should when I've been sleeping on my back/wings on a slab of rock. Huh, was it all a dream? No, no it wasn't. Those memories hurt too much, and I'm in a freaking cave all alone. Maybe the getting shot part was… I looked down. Nope, my shirt is definitely bloodstained. I peeked inside. Holy crap! There was nothing but an indented scar of raw skin! That guy… he healed me? I thought about it for a while, coming up with no other solutions. The blood couldn't have been more than a day old, and I had nothing but a scar and a fuzzy memory. Well, whoever he is, I owe him my life, and given that it was recently saved, I might as well get on with it.

I reviewed my options: going back to the flock, going to Ella and Dr. Martinez's house, going to the School, or heading out on my own. Then I reviewed my answers: no freaking way, they were moving to somewhere I didn't know (and given I was recently shot, I get the feeling they'd be in too much danger), HELL FUCKING NO, and I guess this'd be my only option. Heading out on my own it is, then.

I gingerly sat up, opening my sore wings. Standing up, I surveyed my surroundings. I was in the middle of a random cave about 10 feet in all directions. I looked outside the cave and seeing the forest and the height, I realized I was in a mountain about a hundred miles away from my home. No, it was the flock's house now. I needed to get to civilization, and I needed to ditch this shirt. I noticed a black and blue patterned hoodie next to me, it was probably a guys, but who cares? I put it on and flew to the nearest town and checked for money, and you wouldn't believe it: the thing had 150 dollars in its pocket! This was definitely thanks to the random guy who healed me. I went and bought three loose t-shirts, a couple pairs of jeans and a duffel bag, along with a sleeping bag and some food totaling around fifty dollars, given I bought pretty much the cheapest ones there. I changed in a public restroom and dumped the old clothes in a trash can. I touched the necklace Angel had given me for my fifteenth birthday, remembering her joyful obliviousness. I remembered her days where she was my beautiful little baby. I tore it off and hurled it into the trash can.

I'm going to leave every aspect of the flock I can from my life. Let's start with this, and next goes the name. I want it to have meaning, though. Until then, I'm nameless. "Max" died from that bullet, I was revived from her, like a phoenix from its ashes. Perfect, I realize, now I'm Phoenix. It has a nice ring to it. I guess I won't be nameless, then.

I fill the duffle with my supplies and head back to the woods, to the cave. It will be my temporary home, until I figure out what to do with myself. I lay the sleeping bag on the floor, put my (note: packaged) food along the back of the cave in a neat little pile, the place my duffle at the top of my sleeping bag like a pillow. I sigh and go to sleep. The world can wait, I need a rest, because even though it's past noon, I did have a near death experience, so I deserve some slack. In a few moments, I'm out cold.

**What do you think? I was in a rush, so it's short. No promises, but I'll try to get another one done by this morning. **

**Later- Ghibly **


	4. Chapter 4

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**Sorry, sorry. My internal bedtime is around 3:30 so because I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire (I want to see if there are any reviews- I have to check out this story- I might as well finish this- ooh, here's one by the same author) I didn't end up finishing it till now.**

Chapter Four

_Phoenix_

I go for about a week on the money, then start stealing and dumpster diving. I lose weight, but not too much. I get a computer and start searching, trying to do something, to feel at least slightly productive. For some strange reason, I get Wi-Fi in my little cave, and I managed to hack into it in less than five minutes. I found Fang's blog, and quickly ex-ed out, not wanting to see anything about him and the flock. I tried Itex, the School, and the Institute, but came up with boring, stupid, useless results.

One night, after I went to "bed", I was drifting off to sleep, in that weird almost sleeping mode where you're dreaming but still simultaneously semi-aware of your surroundings? No? I guess it's just me, then. Oh well. Anyway, I was half asleep until I felt a hand clamp over my mouth and my mouth was filled with the all-too-familiar taste of chloroform. I struggled, clawing at the eraser's face, but the blackness came too fast.

_Shit._

_Jeb_

I stared at Max, who was limp in an eraser's arms. She was too emotional, Angel was too manipulative, and the flock was too naïve. Max had one use now: further experimentation. I couldn't wait, first, we'd get rid of that annoying "voice": it kept mucking up our experiments and getting Max out of trouble. Then comes the powers. We created the seeds for several new powers and Max will be an amazing subject: erasers rejected DNA and what we call "bioseeds" not administered at the same time as the lupine DNA and most of the other avian specimens tended to get killed in some of our experiments but Max had the will to live, the strength to live, the courage to live. This would be amazing, and I can't wait to see what affect the outside world has had on her test results. I smiled as we walked through the doors of the School.

_Phoenix_

I woke up, rubbing my eyes blearily, not really bothering to open them. "What happened last night?" I wondered sleepily. The memories flashed: sleep, hands, and chloroform. Shit. I opened my eyes dreading what I'd see. Sterile white floors, piles of inhabited cages, and erasers guarding the doors bombarded my eyes. The scent of antiseptic and blood sickened me and the second level cage seemed to close in around me. This wasn't good at all. AT ALL. The School. I'm at the school! "No no no no NO NO NO NOOO!

Footsteps started echoing towards me. Why me why now? Why, why, WHY! They stop in front of my column of cages. One whitecoat opens mine up, "Hey there sweetie, you're wanted in Lab 7."

I glare at him, "Fuck you." I state.

He looks taken aback, "Umm… what?"

"Die bastard. This place is hell. Given that you work here, ruining the lives of little kids, you apparently have no soul. Non-humans are people too, you know." I yelled at him. Then the all too familiar shock ran through me as he slipped the "obedience handcuffs" on me. I hate these, the electric shocks they use to try to make you do what they say.

_Now is not the time to resist, Max._

_Oh, joy. You again. Why do you always pop up at the wrong times? It gets annoying. _I mentally scold the voice as my cage is placed on a cart and wheeled to what is presumably Lab 7.

_Now, now Max. This might very well be the last you hear of me. The current test is to try and get rid of me._

_Yaaaay! _I think only somewhat sarcastically.

_Oh, Max. You don't know what you're talking about, _he/she/it said.

_I believe I do. Goodbye! _I thought cheerfullyas they put me on to the table and strap me down. Wait, what? Shit. I let the voice distract me. _Thank you so much. Well, let these be my last words to you: I hate you._

If a voice inside your head could sigh, mine did. _Goodbye, Max. _He/she/it said.

_Goodbye and good riddance. Once again, as I decided these would be my last words to you, I hate you. _With that, my internal conversation ended, possibly forever. Some part of me jumped up and down excitedly, the other gave the former death glares. I lay there, awaiting the pinch that usually brought the blackness. There was nothing. A female whitecoat walked in, surveying me from head to toe.

"So this is 54-162a, huh? She's a miracle, that's what she is. She escaped and survived for years. I can't wait to compare test results to before! This is going to be amazing, especially since I missed out on 54-168a. I can't believe they didn't let me brain sample the little mind reader. I heard it escaped. Aren't they, like part of a flock together or something? Oh well, now I get the first successful avian recombinant!" she squealed, somewhat reminding me of Nudge, if Nudge was an evil scienti- no, bad Max. No more thinking of the flock. Ugh, she talked about us like we were some sort of collectible toys which you could only buy every now and then. She went on, but I stopped listening. I stopped, that is, until I saw her pull out the needles and electrodes.

"And like, they say electroshock therapy could get rid of it, but I had to sedate it a little first or it'd go crazy, but I couldn't let it fall asleep or the procedure wouldn't work. They said they'd doubled the standard amount of volts to properly destroy it." Oh, great. I vaguely remembered some sort of electroshock therapy from my previous time with the school. I noticed there were extra bars holding me to the test table, usually they were only on my wrists and ankles, but now there were three on each limb, one on my neck, and two on my torso. A needle poked into my arm and I became somewhat drowsy, too much so to fight, but not enough to sleep, sadly. Electrodes were place on my body, most centered around my head and spinal cord, but some were just at seemingly random places. I heard the heartbeat monitor beeping at my lower-than-usual rate, which was still much higher than the average humans.

Colors seemed to shift as the talkative whitecoat walked over to the machine all the electrodes plugged into. She mumbled the buttons she pressed to herself, before cheerily announcing that they were ready to start. I heard a slight buzz as the machine started up, then saw her press one of the three buttons on a white remote. The pain was jarring and immediate, shocking me out of my dream-like trance induced by the sedative. I gasped then panted for air, my lungs not working right. Again, the energy coursed through me, leaving agony in its wake. My back arched, my limbs wildly flailed, and my screams escaped my throat as the voltage got higher and higher, joining the chorus of unheard screams that occupied the school. The soundproof walls kept the wails at bay, letting the lucky ones that weren't being experimented on or terminated, sleep, or at least writhe in agony in peace. Eventually, when I had passed the breaking point miles back, I fainted.

**There you go, chapter 4. Most likely, my next update will be tomorrow or tomorrow night, because I'm going to start my next series tonight. Be sure to check it out!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**Sorry for not updating recently but I decided on just sleeping for a couple of nights for absolutely no reason besides the classic "I felt like it"**

Chapter 5

_Phoenix_

I wake up back in that stupid cage. Of course. I can't quite control my body right, either. Okay, I can barely move. My attempts to sit up gave me bruises and hurt my wings pretty badly. Slowly, over the course of the day, I regain control over parts of my body. Do you know what it's like to be stuck in a cramped cage for hours, unable to do anything besides twitch, blink and breathe?

No, no you do not. Two words can describe it, although an understatement isn't strong enough a word. It sucks. Anyway, after I'd fully regained control of my arms, a couple hours later, I heaved myself up into a sitting position.

"Ugh, I am so freaking stiff," I muttered to myself, "I'm also a freak, but at the moment, who cares?" _except for those fucking scientists… _I added mentally. I finally got the chance to see if I could actually make a friend among those around me. I could only see those directly beside me, because the top and bottoms of the cages were solid metal. Next to me was a weird lizard rat thing and on the other side was impossible to make out. Not good. I remember being stuck in solitary, slowly going mad, and being surrounded by mute, half dead _things _wasn't much better. It was actually a bit worse: you had to watch them die and still went mad.

"Hello, anyone there?" I whisper-yelled. Erasers didn't take kindly to talking prisoners. They were usually separated, then punished, sometimes with solitary confinement and sometimes with extra tests, not helping the situation at all. No response. Oh, come on.

I leaned my head back against the cage and listened to the soundless screams echoing around the place. _Just because you can't hear them doesn't mean they're not there,_ I thought. I knew there would be no sleep that night (or day, whenever they don't put you in a room with a window you can never tell what time it is. I closed my eyes and gave in to the rare silence, broken only by the occasional mutant's last breath. _God, when will I get out of here?_

_Time Skip: Two Months_

I meekly walked out to whatever torture awaited me. I used to scratch and fight just for the sake of it, but I learned that just makes things worse: more guards, extra punishments, etc. and if I ever wanted to escape, I had to stop. For the past week or so, after I had stopped fighting, they watched me cautiously. They _had _decided to see how much farther by body could stretch than a normal human's by using basically a modern version of the rack. Yeah, that's right: the rack, an ancient interrogation/ torture method. It was soooo much fun. Anyway, they tortured me, and I stopped fighting. They thought maybe they had broken me, shattered my spirit and created a restless slave, but knew no one can break the invincible Maximum Ride. Now, they had started reducing the amount of guards escorting me everywhere. I was going pretty slowly, but we were down to five. When it gets to two, I can make my escape… hopefully.

I looked to my next test. Oh, come on, it was the maze test again. They always make me redo it but with a different punishment and stricter rules each time. Sometimes they had obstacles, erasers, and other random punishments throughout the maze. I no longer had the voice to guide me through, but my gut instinct has become stronger. I waited at the beginning, fingering the metal collar they had put on me effectively making me mute. Damn them, damn them all.

I heard the buzzer, signaling it was time to go. I knew I had roughly twenty minutes to run the ridiculously long maze. I bolted in took the first left, third right, the right after that, ran straight then took the fifth left. My gut instinct had been very reliable recently, so I didn't doubt it. I also knew that after five minutes, the erasers were allowed to try and kill me, so when an eraser started following me six minutes in, I was prepared. I stopped dead, let the confused charging eraser pass me, the jabbed him, much harder than I needed to, in a pressure point in the neck. With no time to waste, I didn't kill the brute, and rushed on. By eight minutes I was out of breath, twelve, and my lungs started aching and a cut in my ribs from the last eraser burned. By fifteen, there were two other eraser "incidents" and I had to stop, no longer caring what, if anything, happened when I did. Panting, I rested my hands on my knees. An electric shock raced from the anklet rushing through my body then into to the stupid collar, which sadly had a torture option. The agony brought me back on track. Usually, I wasn't this bad, but adding on the eraser attacks, this was pretty hard on me.

Next left, third right, right again, second left… I continued on, forcing back the pain in my chest. At eighteen minutes I could see the exit! As well as the five erasers blocking it. I took in the scene, reluctant to waste a second. I used a running start and took a flying leap (not actually _flying, _I forgot to mention they tied them to my back). I nearly cleared them but one grabbed my foot and brought me back to earth. _Damn it! _I was wasting time. I had my bare hands, at least… but they had knives. _Shit. _

I jackknifed off the ground wincing as my ankle impacted on the ground, I think that damn eraser twisted it. I grabbed the nearest knife and spun, angling my arm a little upwards. Usually, this is a very stupid move used in movies because it's one-on-one, it leaves you open for attacks yada, yada, yada, but I was super-fast and surrounded by erasers. This move let me slit all their throats within two seconds. They clutched their throats as I dove the last ten feet to the exit. I stared at the knife in my hands wondering why they actually clutched their throats: usually they were tougher than that. My question was soon answered, as I recognized the purple tinted hilt that indicated the pain toxin coating the blade. That would be why… I've had experiences with it (torture if you hadn't guessed it already) and I know just how bad it is. I fell to my knees, and then collapsed flat onto the floor. _I guess that was more draining than I thought it would be_, I thought before the world faded to black.


	6. Chapter 6

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**Hey guys. Thanks to everyone reading this, but next week I'm going to "camp" early Monday morning and coming home Friday afternoon as a sort of field trip. It's been happening for over twenty years, and it's become a tradition. To make it up to you I'll try to update every day till I leave, then daily for another two days when I get back. **

Chapter Six

_Fang_

It's been two months since we kicked Max out of the flock. It was a bad choice, simple as that. We never knew how much we had relied on her, her motivation speeches, her words of "wisdom", her decision-making. Now, we were in much worse shape, the erasers have been replaced by cyborg hunter killers which were attacking even more often than before. Maybe Max was still tracking us somehow. _You know you don't really believe that, _said my conscience. This was not to be confused with the voice. It's just my inner thoughts that have a tendency to contradict what I tell myself. Everyone thought she was a traitor, but on some level, knew she wasn't. But all the evidence said she was. Angel had even found an unfinished letter to the school saying where we were. I had it somewhere, I think. I might've torn it up, but I tried to forget anything Max related, but no matter what, when I go to bed and lay there, staring at the ceiling, all I can think about is Max. It was all haunting me: her dirty blonde hair with brown streaks flying out behind her, our first kiss that she didn't freak out at, and her crying and screaming at me when I nearly died; Max's smile, her laugh, her trust and confidence in us, her willingness to risk her life to save us. _A trust that you betrayed. _I did not, she was the traitor. She had to be, Angel proved it to us.

Then it hit me: Angel. Angel_, _of all people, was the wrong eight-year-old to read minds, let alone control them. Yes, she was generally a nice girl, but her mental stability levels, if tested, may be quite scary. We're talking about the girl who was constantlyattempting, to become flock leader, trying to replace the girl who thought of her as her little baby. I realized _exactly _what happened and everything slammed into me like a ton of bricks.

I marched into the living room, not knowing my exact purpose, but figuring it would probably end with a very bloody eight-year-old _corpse. _I didn't care, all that mattered was Angel's betrayal and _Max. _"Angel, how could you?" I yelled, much too loud, "I've figured out your little scheme! Max wasn't the traitor, you were! YOU ARE THE FUCKING TRAITOR!" I screamed at her. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and everyone besides Angel froze. She put down her colored pencil and calmly walked towards me. I barely noticed.

"Calm down, Fang." She said in a soothing voice, meeting my death glare with a coolly captivating gaze. I shook it off.

"NO! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HER! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US!" I practically screeched.

Her gaze never changed, her face showed no emotion, and I knew she was guilty. In the same tone as before, she continued, "Calm down, Fang. _You. Will. Calm. Down._" She commanded. Immediately I felt calmer, my anger simmering down to mild annoyance, but my guilt and sadness filled the gap.

"Why did you lie about this, why'd you kick out Max?" I asked, "She could be anywhere, and I mean _anywhere_ by now. And she'll probably never forgive us for th-" I started rambling.

"_Fang. This never happened. Max is a lying, backstabbing, traitorous bitch. She betrayed the flock and has been kicked out for that, and for absolutely no other reason. She was a bad leader, I am much better than her. The previous five minutes have never happened to anyone here."_

I shook my head, trying to get rid of this strange feeling, something about Angel. I straightened my neck and smiled at her. Ah, she was such a great leader, much better than that lying, backstabbing, traitorous bitch, Max, anyways. "Hey, Angel. What's going on? I forgot what I came down here for. Could you remind me what we were talking about again?"

"Oh, nothing. You just wanted to know what time we were having dinner. Is six okay with you?" she asked, looking at me sweetly. I nodded. That sounded just great. I went up to my room and lay down on the bed, then started listening to music on the iPod Angel got me for our shared birthday. Dinner at six sounded great.

**Muah ha ha ha! I wasn't originally intending to do this, but hey; why not? I'm thinking of starting yet **_**another **_**fanfic after I come back from the camp, not the one I said I would, that will be coming soon, but another one I had a really cool idea for. Laters people .**


	7. Chapter 7

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**I'm leaving for camp on Monday! I'm gonna try to get you two chapters tomorrow, but no promises: I have to pack for camp.**

**(Note: the "_ years later things all start from where we left off)**

Chapter Seven

_Phoenix_

One Year Later

I was just about to make my escape. I had it all planned out. Everything was going perfectly, until this happened. They've locked me in a titanium room and keep throwing experiments at me. _Kill them or we do it._ They had said. _Kill them or we will torture them to death. _The failed experiments. The rejects. The ones that were practically useless because of their mutations. The ones that had powers that drove them mad. The ones brave enough to fight back. I killed, they were spared torture, and the school was free of more rejects. This is why they fed me instead of tortured me, but although it kept me alive, it was killing me. The guilt was gnawing at my conscience nonstop and every time I slept, their haunting gazes bore holes into me and their ghostly arms tore me apart. Luckily, this was only allowed every two or three days, because if I fell asleep before the allotted time they'd torture another reject to death in front of my eyes, then go nearly as far with me. I was slowly dying on the inside and out. My body was battered, I was skinnier than ever, and the bruised look under my large eyes seemed to be getting permanent. Then there were the mutants. Some welcomed the knife I was given straight into their hearts, and others beat the crap out of my broken body before death. I was never healed, barely sleeping, and the only way to get food was killing. Why me? _Why me?_

Two Years Later

The year and a half of killing is over. Now I was comatose every other day, and doing those maniacal tests on the rest. I am starting to lose my emotions. I try desperately to hold on to them, but I can only really feel sadness, pain and emptiness now. I can't even summon rage anymore. My mind is losing the battle for control, and my sanity was long gone a while back. I don't even consider fighting back anymore, I find it quite pointless, now. I'm too weak, too starved, too tired, too far into the boundary of death for it to do anything. I can't even call it my "life" anymore. Death would be nice, though. An escape from this hell. I don't belong in the real one, do I? I did kill those kids, but those were mercy killings, it was the kindest thing to do, wasn't it? They were lucky; right now a knife through the heart would be a gift from god. I really do wish I could die. I was basically a pitiful pile of bones with no emotions. _Please, _I called out mentally, _somebody kill me._

Three Years Later

I stared at the word written in front if my face. _Hope. _What did that really mean, anyways? I know I lost it a long time ago. I know it was something positive, if it wasn't, I'd probably still have it. I only really feel sadness and emptiness along with the occasional bout of self-pity. They were trying to gauge my reactions to positive, negative, and neutral words. So far I felt nothing and showed nothing in return. Currently I was on my down day. My "schedule" had three days which just kept going in a cycle. DNA injection/operation, down day, where I had purely mental exercises, and a day where basically all they did was torture me in many, many, different and sick ways.

I have well and truly lost both my emotions and my sanity, but didn't care. Why should I? I mean, my future is really just the inevitable death that I truly hope will come soon. I can't believe I'd forgotten the effects of the school. Actually, I could, I had buried the memories as deep as they would go. I didn't care anymore, now it just blended in with everything else in my mind. I'm still waiting on Death, but he seems busy because I'm not going anywhere near anything along the lines of heaven. That really sucks.


	8. Chapter 8

**Does it look like Maximum Ride belongs to me? That's what I thought.**

**I'm sorry I couldn't get an extra chapter out! I tried but I was out all day. Oh well, I guess I'll see you next week if I can't get my procrastination under control. I'll try to pull an all-nighter, and maybe I can get another chapter out. **_**Maybe. **_

Chapter Eight

_Phoenix_

I don't even know how long I've been in here anymore. I'm nothing but a broken shell. They finally broke Maximum Ride. It took years of torture, abuse, sleep deprivation, starvation, and forced murder, but it's been done. The original brand of torture, forcing me to murder innocent experiments, had left me traumatized and I've become a full-blown insomniac. Sleep brings the nightmares and the memories, so to solve that problem, I just stopped sleeping. At first, it didn't work, but now sleep is just another nightmare which I don't have to live through again. They don't feed me anymore, either. I'm only alive because of the I.V. they put in me while I'm unconscious or unable to fight back. They also realized that feeding me instead is pretty stupid because I have a death-wish. I'm still as skinny as a twig, but I'm alive. Not that I want to be, anyway.

The silence and death have driven me mad, so when I see anything out of the ordinary I don't really question it all that much anymore. That was, until I got a pile of food for absolutely no reason. _What the hell? _The thought of actually eating food made me sick. Why would they give this to me? What's going on? Then I remember something: I don't even know how long I've been in this cage. Before a while ago (I have no clue and don't care about passage of time) my limit in the cage was four hours, while I wasn't still asleep from surgery. Maybe they finally found me useless and it was a last meal! That would be amazing.

The smile that twitched the corner of my lips up felt alien. Smiling didn't happen much in this place if you didn't count scientists getting those brain samples they always wanted or getting their kicks out of torturing me. Smiling. Clowns smile, evil scientists smile, and now I smile. Smiling is bad. I stop smiling. There, much better. Evil scientists and clowns do it, so it must be bad. Clowns are creepy. But they live in the outside world. The flock lives in the outside world.

Abruptly, I slam my head against the bars of the cage. "Bad Maxie! The flock is bad!" I mutter, doing it again. I remember that head injuries like this could make you forget, or even kill you. I welcomed the pain. _Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! _Then I felt cold hands wrap around my shoulders. I looked up to see a whitecoat. He wasn't smiling. Yet. I examined his face. Was that concern? Why would a whitecoat be concerned about me, the hopefully-dead-soon experiment? Then I took in its face. It had sandy hair, slight wrinkles, and shiny, shiny glasses. I think for a while, because it's very familiar. _Jeb. _Oh my crap. I didn't say "oh my god" anymore, because if there was a god, he wouldn't let these scientists do this to us.

"Max, stop." He remembered my name. Everyone else didn't seem to. I was subject 54-162a. I wonder if there was a 54-162b or something. Maybe there was. It was probably a clone. Oh, Max Two! She tried to replace me in the fl-

_Slam! Slam! Slam!_ I beat my head on the side of my cage. Blood started trickling down my face. I thought I lost all of it in that experiment. It sure seemed like it. With my throat and wrists slit, I just sat there waiting to die in that huge puddle of blood. But then I, sadly, woke up again. The hands gripped my shoulders tighter, effectively stopping my pseudo-suicide attempt.

"Why can't I die already?" I screeched. It was what I really wanted. I didn't even care how painful it was. I wouldn't care even if it was even in some twisted pain venom experiment. Pain venom is painful. I giggled as if it were the funniest thing in the world. Giggling. Why the fuck was I giggling? Oh, it was probably that attempt at pain medication with "extra features" which always made my head feel funny. Jeb on the other hand, looked even more concerned.

"Damn it! She's lost it!" he muttered. Lost what? My marbles? Or maybe it was my will to live? Or both. Well, my will to live is _long _gone. As in on the opposite side of the universe long. The universe seems so far away. _But how can it be far away if you're in it?_ Ummm… I don't know. What if it is possible somehow?

I was brought back to the real world by Jeb's voice, "Max, do you remember who you are?" he asked sternly.

"The one who should die, and might if she says please?" I ask.

"Max, you know what I mean. You're history, the flock, Dylan, saving the world; do you remember?" he asked.

_Slam! Slam! Slam! _"Bad" _Slam! _"Flock." _Slam! _"Good" _Slam! _"Death." _Slam!_

"Stop, Max! What are you doing?" I'm hitting my face against the bars of a cage, duh. My vision was hazy and I felt like someone was driving a railroad spike into my skull. Well, it would be nice if it was actually happening, but it just felt like it. Too bad. I looked around. Maybe someone nearby had a railroad spike grafted onto their arm and a power to let them stretch like rubber and could do it.

"Max, listen to me!" he shouted. I made a show of covering my ears and tone-deafly singing "La la la la la la la la la la la la,"

"Max, they want to terminate you! We can't let that happen!" who's we? And, oh my crap, they want to terminate me. _Finally. _I could barely believe it.

"They… want… to… k-k-kill m-me?" I questioned.

Jeb misunderstood my stutter, "Yes, I'm finally getting through to you!"

"Thank you so much, Jeb! I'm finally going to die!" I screamed in joy. Jeb face-palmed.

"Okay, but you have to get in the S.D. chamber for them to kill you. For some reason, they decided to take a slightly humane approach with a completely inhumane task. Follow me." the S.D. chamber was the sensory deprivation chamber. Cool, it'd be a painless death. I followed him to a room with a few S.D. tanks, which seemed smaller and more lightweight than the usual ones. Who cared? Not me.

Now, notice this: in an S.D., you can't feel anything, so much so that even time becomes warped. Sometimes, you feel like you were in there for eternity, or you get woken up a minute after a couple of minutes. After what seemed like forever, my chamber was open and I crawled out. I looked around and knew a few things right off the bat, but, one in particular stood out.

_I wasn't dead._

**Okay, I'm sorry to leave it there but my bed is calling. I'm really sorry about not updating my other story, but I feel tired and I have to wake up at six today for camp. Yay me.**


	9. Chapter 9

**My wrist is sprained. It fucking sucks. My left hand is useless and basically tangible pain. *sighs* one-handed typing sucks. You're lucky I'm bored.**

**I happen to be the all-time queen of procrastination, so it's taking me forever to write this. I'm sorry and I feel pretty guilty.**

Chapter Nine

_Phoenix_

Goddamnit. Jeb's a fucking asshole. He said they would kill me while in the S.D. tank. I hate that fucking liar, I really do. I stood up and glared at him. Why did he have to exist? Life would be so much easier if it just ended. I sighed (again).

"Jeb, you have twenty seconds before I kill myself. Explanation of why you lied to me about the wonderful possibility of a nice, painless death starts now."

He looked slightly taken aback at this, but quickly regained his composure, "and how exactly would you do that, may I ask?" he smirked.

"Easy," I smiled at the idea of death, "I would kill you, because you know CPR, tear off a piece of your shirt and shove it down my throat. Easy as pie." He glared at me, knowing full well that I meant it, "15… 14… 13… 12…"

"Shit! Okay, I care about you," man, he just started and already had earned a snort from me (which he ignored), "so I decided to set you free again. On your own." that caught my attention.

"No one around to save me if I kill myself?" I asked, countdown paused.

"Past the usual humans, who are useless in the first place, no. But, in return for letting you go, I'd like you to live for at least another month. You can just go out on your own or I can get you a house for you to live in. You will have a bottomless credit card hooked up to my account, as well as new set of clothes and food supplies for a week." I looked at Jeb.

"Then what happens if I kill myself?"

Jeb shrugged, "You die. It's regrettable, but if it's truly what you want, it's inevitable." I'm liking this idea. No one really cares what he wants, especially not me. So maybe I'll take his offer, spend all of his money, and _then _I'll kill myself. This might just be fun. Fun. I haven't fun in years. Pain has replaced fun. Pain and misery and madness. Madness. The craziness and anger that plagued me... _plagues _me.

"We have a deal," I said. I think Jeb knew my plan, but was letting me go anyway. Why? I have no clue. I don't think anyone really understood him. Poor little thing, wah, wah, go find mommy. He led me to a cage. Freedom and cages do not mix. Mixing, like they mixed my DNA. Avian, human, and god knows what else, now. Hmm…now. Now, I had to deal with Jeb.

"Another cage? And I thought you were promising freedom. How insulting. Wait, no. how is that insulting? Is it rude? No, it's disappointing. Whoops. That's what I meant. How disappointing." I can tell that I'm different, crazier, but I can't bring myself to care. Oh well, it's not like anyone else does.

"There's a truck of mutants a truly insane colleague of mine is driving out to a different branch of Itex tonight. He has agreed to "accidentally" crash the truck. I've helped rig it so all the security measures break down and all the mutants will be released. You will be smuggled into the truck, but you have to put on the collar. It will prevent you from speaking, but everything in there has one. Use this to get it off once you've escaped. It should open all the collars." He handed me some sort of remote. I noticed how he said "everything" instead of "everyone". Once a whitecoat, always a whitecoat, I guess. Jeb's always been an evil bastard, whitecoat or not. No one cares what he says. Right?

I clambered into the cage, not really paying attention to the pain screaming through her lower back when I bent down. I put the pack in the corner and curled up over it. Even if it looked awkward, no one cared enough to look. Or looked enough to care. I felt it lurch and heard the wheels rolling. It wasn't long before I felt myself being hoisted and shoved onto a truck. I stared at the collar in my hands.

"Put it on. Dr. Kelson's coming." I heard Jeb mutter. My hearing had been altered, and now was better. Like everything else they "improved", including my shitty life. I forced the stupid thing around my throat. The immediate pressure almost made me press the button, but I was stronger than that. Maybe.

"What's this?" the whitecoat Jeb called Dr. Kelson asked.

"Oh, a late addition to the testing group. It's a current clone of 54-162a. It's kind of a failure in the cognitive department, but it has great reflexes and an amazing power. For some weird reason they refuse to kill the original, so they're using clones for brain samples. Works for me." Jeb said, and I could hear the untrustworthiness, the lies, and the basic slimy Jeb-ness dripping from his voice. Kelson peered at me, attempting to study me. I'm not a test, I'm not an ancient civilization, and I'm not an it! Don't fucking study me! I silently screamed.

Eventually, Kelson let Jeb load me up onto the silent truck, high in the stacks, with the lack of noise only broken by coughs, wheezes and the occasional strangled whimper. I lay there silently, readying the remote that will free my throat. I tried to talk just to see what would happen, and immediately regretted it as I started hacking up a lung, which at some point got kind of throaty, setting it off again. A few minutes later, I got it under control and resumed my earlier position, curled up at the bottom of my cage. Suddenly, with a loud crash, the truck stopped. My cage fell to the side, maybe a twenty-foot drop, not breaking any of my now enforced bones, but leaving some nasty bruises. Every door in the giant truck opened or smashed, and I quickly scrambled out of the cage and the ruined "door". Then I paused. I'm free. _For how long? _I, could do what I wanted, when I wanted. _How do you know this is not some cruel trick? _This was a new chapter of my life. _And it may be your last._


	10. Chapter 10

**I happen to be the all-time queen of procrastination, so it's taking me forever to write this. I'm sorry and I feel pretty guilty.**

**Also, I just realized that I'd been forgetting the disclaimer for the past few chapters. Whatever. I don't own Maximum Ride, never will, and refuse to state that again in this story.**

**Oh, and by the way, in the reviews in this story, please comment whether you want me to start an idea which randomly came into my head or one I started writing a little over a year ago. I will also count votes on my other story, Save Me, Before It's Too Late. It's not as good, and I update less because I enjoy writing this one more, but check it out. I'm making it sound pretty bad, but hey, I'm just being truthful. Oh yeah, for the voting, PMs will count as well. Now, after that much too long A/C, in which I got **_**very**_** off topic in, here we go: the next Fang POV!**

Chapter Ten

_Fang_

This is truly crappy. It took forever, but we finally got it into our heads that Angel had brainwashed us. She's gone, and the flock is hanging by threads. Angel, who wasn't the sweet, innocent little girl we all thought she was, has managed to get rid of Max. Possibly for good. We're looking everywhere for her, but she's disappeared, and I can't believe it. Max is gone. Those words have been imprinted in my mind, haunting me in my sleep.

It's been a little over three years since I figured out, one since I actually managed to remember, eight months since I convinced the flock and six since we got rid of her. It took several attempts for each step because Angel managed to reset our minds before we got to do anything. In the end, when all of us rejected her she kinda seemed broken. She had said that the only reason she used mind control on us was because we were so loyal to Max that we wouldn't believe her. That it was for the good of the flock. The backstabbing bitch was spewing lies, but she left with total. I guess there was something psychological about truly not being wanted, like how Max could have made us let her stay, but left.

"Fang?" I heard Gazzy ask, interrupting my thoughts. "When do we stop for dinner?"

"Now's fine. We'll go grab something once we find somewhere to eat. 'Kay?" we were on the final search for Max. There was nowhere left to look. We had gone through the entire U.S., all of Europe and everywhere else Max could possibly be. We even looked in the destroyed branches of Itex and the School. We looked everywhere we've been, some places we haven't, and anywhere in between. Nothing. We didn't know what to do. Max amazingly held us together, even Angel did that as well but not the right way, but the rest of us were failing miserably. And on top of the fact no one was a decent leader, we all knew deep down that Max was dead, we just didn't want to admit it. Currently, we were in NYC, have lost all hope, and are desperately trying to keep the flock together.

"Here, a McDonalds!" said Nudge, who, though attempting to sound perky, lacked her usual verve, once again interrupting my thoughts. Although I consciously made an effort to talk more, I was still quiet and constantly absorbed in my thoughts. We went in and ordered separately, because that way, they assumed we were ordering for our families. As we ate in silence, I realized that it was time to just admit it out loud. I braced myself for the emotions I usually blocked off to hit with full force. I couldn't cry, especially not in front of them. I was their final role model, the one they look up to, and their failure of a leader.

"Guys," I said, making eye contact with all of them, except Iggy, who tried and failed, instead fixing his solemn gaze on my left ear. I couldn't bring myself to even find it funny, "this may not be the best thing to deliver over a happy meal, but no more procrastination over this. I think we all know it, but don't want to believe it. Max is dead, and we have to deal with it. We have to live on, let the flock go on. She wouldn't want us here, moping about her death. She'd want us to move on, to survive. We need to, if not for us, then for Max. We should try to get things back to how they used to be, how they were before all of this. We need this." Nudge, with tears gathering in her eyes, nodded solemnly. Gazzy and Iggy did the same, with attempting to wipe away the tears in his eyes.

"Yeah. Somehow, we need to fix this, we need a leader, we need a home, and we need to move on. We need someone new, we need to recruit. We need something besides ourselves to focus on. I wish Max was here, but she isn't, and never will be. We have to deal with it, and put realistic goals in front of us." She said quietly. She was absolutely right, as well.

"Who agrees?" I asked, putting my hand in the middle. Nudge followed suit, with Iggy after her. Gazzy stared at our hands hesitantly, before placing his on top. "For Max." I said.

"For Max." everyone agreed. We threw out our trash and headed to the sewers, with Nudge starting to talk. Not as much as she used to, when we had Max, but more than she had been recently. As soon as we got there, they settled down and, one by one, fell asleep. As Iggy's eyes closed, I pulled out the laptop and turned it on. I headed to something I hadn't touched in over three years. There were over ten _million_ messages waiting for me. I stared blankly at the counter. Wow, just wow.

I started typing up my new entry, occasionally stopping to look at the worried messages left on the site. There were several who thought I was dead, some who thought I had gone into hiding, and many more theories, most of which involving the school. The one thing I couldn't believe is the fact they even left messages after three years of silence.

_Hey guys,_

_I know you're worried about me and the fact I haven't posted in years. Anyone who's reading this, thank you for, after all this time, still waiting for me. It's a long story about what happened, so I'll try to cut to the chase. Angel turned out to be evil, and made us believe she was a traitor who worked for the school. She'd brainwash us whenever we figured out what happened, so it took years to get rid of her. The strange thing is, when we finally told her to go, she left. After all that, she left. I guess it was like with Max, who basically just told us we were all idiots and that we'd regret this and went. Boy was she right. And now, she's dead. We've searched the world and not a trace. She's not in Europe, she's not in the U.S., she's not in Antarctica, she's not helping poor people in Africa, and she's not in Asia, she not anywhere near Itex branches or the School. The flock is falling apart and we need to move on. It's sad, but Max wouldn't want us moping about her death._

_We need to recruit. We believe it will help keep us together, and give us something to focus on. If you're "special", or know someone who is, tell me, and give me info. We only want two or three people, so if you're in a group, four is pushing it, but still feel welcome to leave the information._

_ Fly on, Fang_


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi guys! So, me being my stupid self didn't think to make a poll and just said put it in the reviews. It confused some people so I tried to make one and I think it failed… so yeah. I can't figure out how to embed it so if it didn't fail, it's wherever polls are. But, just put which one you think in the reviews, and I'm well aware of the fact I didn't elaborate much on my second, but to clear any confusion up, she's a hardcore mutant soldier. Also, before I forget, Max's voice **_**is **_**gone, she just talks to (and argues with) herself in her head. Insane, psycho, School escapee, remember? Anyhoo, here's chapter eleven.**

**(Random note from halfway through the chapter: yes, I am a grammar Nazi, bad spelling drives me mad, and I was raised to be like that, however, actual grammar sucks. I know it, quite well, actually, but I like to think that it doesn't apply to me. X3)**

Chapter Eleven

_Phoenix_

I flew up into the night, and hovered there, just for a second. I remembered the remote in my hand and pressed the button. I breathed in deeply, savoring the unrestricted airflow as my collar plummeted to its doom thousands of feet below me. I looked down, staring at the mutants practically pouring out of the ruined truck with flashes of various colors burst, and I realized they were mutant's powers, including elements. Of course, I bet they were desperate to get out, no, I _know _they were desperate to get out. It was nearly three times the size of your average moving van, and jam packed with cages, so I could imagine there being well over a thousand mutants, maybe two thousand in there. I mean, it was huge and the crates were stacked up to the ceiling. Maybe there were more bird kids in there. Maybe, just maybe, I could make a new flock. New flock… kind of like my old flock. _No! Bad Max! The flock is done. Dead to you. _I pounded myself in the head, again and again until I felt the blood drip down into my eyes. Blood? Oh yeah… when they reinforced my bones, they gave me titanium spikes on each finger, kind of like permanent, brass, well _titanium_, knuckles. The metal cones were on the first section of each finger so when I made a fist to punch someone, my spikes would tear into their skin. They were that sharp. I had only nicked myself with one, because when you're hitting yourself it's not exactly easy to properly punch yourself. Whatever.

Shrugging off my feelings, I disappeared into the night, going into hyper-drive in an attempt to outfly my memories, but the resulting sonic boom nearly knocked me out of the sky. Oof, I'm not accustomed to that anymore. Somehow, I kept flying at that speed and went on till morning. Wow. I didn't truly know if I could still fly until now, and I managed to go on for a few more hours. I stopped on a cliff and sat on the edge, feet dangling off, to rest. I munched on five granola bars from the backpack before I lay down and went to sleep.

I awoke a few hours later, I think. I shoved the rest of the granola bars down my throat and went hypersonic (it _is _a word). It wasn't too long before I reached a town. Still at the outskirts, I looked down at myself. Whoops. I was still in my bloody hospital gown. Yeah, I needed to change. Change like I had. Lose what everybody knew and come back different. I looked in the bag. There were jeans, a maroon t-shirt, and a black hoodie. I took them out and quickly changed behind a tree. I noticed the bottom of the bag contained something. I reached in and pulled it out. It was a pair of nice sunglasses with a note attached.

_ Max,_

_ You should wear these, your appearance would be quite alarming to most folks if you didn't._

_ -Jeb _

Whatever. I put the shades on, figuring I'd look in the mirror next chance I got. Jeb's a fucking weirdo, a bastard, and a two-faced weasel, but my hunch is that he was right, and, I mean, what harm could a pair of sunglasses do? _Famous last words, Max. _Oh, shut up.

Spending money… how should I start? I walked along trying to find something until a certain place caught my eye. Perfect. I'm gonna get drunk. There was a bar across the street and I walked up to it. I knew I was goddamn skinny, but I could say I was recovering from anorexia. Ha! Anorexia! Me and the flock were the complete opposi… _Bad Max! Bad flock! They should die! I should die!_ I dug my spikes into my wrist, as hitting my head may get me locked up in a mental institution. Which happens to be where the employees of the School belong. The school… _No! No! Bad school! Bad torture! _I screeched mentally, digging the spikes deeper into my wrists.

Whoops. I shouldn't be doing that. I shook my head and wiped my hands on my hoodie (it was black, no one would notice), before walking up to the front entrance. A bored looking bouncer stood there, waiting for something, anything interesting to happen. I didn't know that feeling all too well, as my umm… lifestyle made it so that I savored any peace and quiet that I got.

"Can I come in?" I asked with a little attitude. I got my fingers broken for attitude at the school, once. _Bad Max! _I shouted inwardly, barely resisting the temptation to pound myself with my knuckles. Wait a minute, it called me Max (**a/n Max isn't quite sane enough to fully comprehend that she is talking to herself**)! _I'm not Max! I'm Phoenix! _ No response was heard. Eh, whatever. I refocused on the man in front of me. He gave me a once over, giving noticeable looks to my hair. I looked at my hair, which, after these years (and random experiments) has grown to halfway down my thigh. It wasn't brown anymore, not even blonde. It's a whitish silvery color thanks to the School and it's messed up ways. They also sped up its growth, and, besides that, it had to be a complete mess.

"Like your hair," he said stepping aside to let me in. Weirdo. I stepped into the bar. Were just starting to enter, no one there was mingling, just drowning their sorrows, or, in some cases, almost themselves, in alcohol. This was exactly what I had planned for the evening, never mind the fact that I've never actually had an alcoholic drink before. I walked up to the bartender and leaned right in her face.

"Shot of whiskey, please." I said loudly. She jumped back in shock, but quickly poured my drink which I immediately chugged down. It burned my throat as it went down, and I nearly coughed it right back up. I knew I'd regret this tomorrow, but I just needed a day of doing something like this to ease off all the stress. I slammed it back on the table to make it clear I wanted more. Just as fast as the first time, she poured it, and I chugged it back. I started to feel a little woozy and strangely… happy. It was so… so weird.

The night drew on, the place filled up, and I grew increasingly drunk. Whoops. _NOT!_ _Hehe._ "Vodka!" I randomly exclaimed, "I want vodka!" in truth, I didn't know what vodka was past these three things: it was Russian, it was alcoholic, and it was strong. At least I _thought _it was. Randomly, as the bartender poured my vodka, I laughed like an evil maniac for no reason besides "I felt like it". She looked at me worriedly, but handed me my drink. About an hour later, things grew… interesting. I was downing a random martini after laughing evilly again. _A good "muah ha ha ha" was good for your soul. Proven by scientists. _I thought randomly._ No, wait! Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad! Scientists are evil! _I'm not 100% sure when I got vocal, but I did.

"NOOOO! The whitecoats are coming! The whitecoats are coming!" I screeched, "The end is nigh! Nigh! Nigh! NIGH!" and _that _is how I got kicked out of the first bar I've ever been in. The random urge came out of nowhere, but, well, given I'm here and all, and given I'm gonna kill myself soon, I might as well do it. I walked up to a random boy, kissed him full on the lips, and was now walking away, cackling maniacally.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi guys! I'm very sorry for being MIA for who knows how long (My internal clock is completely and utterly screwed… I have no clue why…), and, for those of you wondering why, I have absolutely no excuse. None. I'm just easily distracted, and go read other people's fanfics after saying to myself "I'm just gonna see if I have any PMs…" Yes, I'm pathetic, yes, you can be mad at me, and yes, this chapter is insanely short (Yeah, the actual passage is only 661 words. To me, at least, that's pretty darn short.), but I'm tired and kind of want to read instead of write for a while (I'm going to come up with a basic schedule for uploads soon, and I will try to stick to it) so I made this little filler to, hopefully, keep people happy. If the short, filler-ness of it aggravates you, I'm sorry, but I can't do all that much about it now.**

**So as you all know, I've been doing a vote to see what story I'll write next. I've decided the voting will end next Friday. You will have one week (well, six days) to finish the voting. Now, just for fun, I will give the votes in roman numerals, and by the way, if you count them, they will not add up because I asked some people via private message. Laters- Ghibly.**

**Story 1: **A normal, eight-year-old girl, with friends, family, and a good life in general, makes one mistake and is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets captured by erasers. She gets brought to the school and meets the ten-year-old max. Then she gets wings. Of course, because that's what any kid does when they get to that age. A year later, she is still pretty sane, but very different. She is removed to a separate wing of the school and revealed to have a purpose. What will come next?  
**V (5)**

**Story 2: **The apocalypse is over, most humans are dead, besides those running Itex and the school, and the flock and fang's gang have died along with most of the mutants from gen 77 and under. The various branches of the school and Itex have turned against each other, using mutants as soldiers, and almost the entire world is a war zone. My name is Leo, and this is my story.

**(And yes, Leo **_**is**_** a soldier)**

**IV (4)**

**C'mon peoples, vote!**

**Oh, and by the way, the guy featured in this is actually pretty rational and sane, but a new thing is that Max's appearance has changed: her hair is a sort of white, her skin is paler (and less blemished), and her eyes are red. This is due to the whitecoats' idea of a joke: they decided, during their testing period to see if they could change pigments through DNA, and Max "somehow" ended up looking like a vampire. Her eyes are pretty freaky, but past that, she's insanely beautiful. Every now and then, this crazy, over-the-top reaction will occur in guys.**

Chapter Twelve

Random P.O.V.

I lived in a town where nothing interesting ever happened. Everybody knew everybody, there were no strangers. If you had a bad reputation, everyone stayed away from you. The town clung to every bit of gossip they could get their hands on. Every day school was the boring old drag it's stereotyped to be, there was no reason to change our daily and or/weekly schedules, and the hot, dry weather never changed. The social status pyramid was set in stone, no one ever moved in or away, and no one visited. There were never any emergencies, and it barely rained, never snowed, and hardly went below ninety degrees. Welcome to my stupid, boring, and utterly predictable life. So when a stranger in sunglasses is pushed out of the bar, it really grabbed my attention.

She turned towards me, stumbling. When I saw her, I was stunned. Her clothes were simple, the opposite of revealing, showing nothing but her arms and head. She wore a maroon t-shirt and dark-wash jeans, but their simplicity just made her more attractive in a way. She was too skinny, more than slightly underweight, as if recovering from anorexia, or developing it, but it simply added to her charm. Her hair was long, shiny, and white. It wasn't sheer white, as it had a silver tone to it. It's true platinum, unlike those girls who dye their hair that ridiculous shade of blonde. Her face, though partly obscured by sunglasses, was what mesmerized me the most. Her pale skin, full, pink lips, and arched brows drew me in. This was the girl of my dreams.

Hurriedly, I wiped the drool off my face and pretended to act cool. She walked towards me, well _stumbled_ towards me, as it was obvious she was so hammered that she couldn't really move without stumbling. She nearly passed me without giving me so much as a second glance, but as she drew near, her eyes locked with mine. It was there, in that moment, that I truly realized that she was the one, that she was my soul-mate. So what if every last hot girl in my life have completely ignored me, this one was different, I could tell in my heart.

She stopped dead. Holy crap, did she actually like me? It was as if time was going in slow motion as she turned towards me. She looked into my eyes, I think, but the sunglasses she wore completely blocked off any view I had of hers. Then something amazing happened: she grabbed the back of my head and kissed me. I jumped a little in surprise, but melted into her as the sparks flew. She pulled back, and stared at me for a moment. I started to lean in to restart the kiss, in an attempt to turn it into a full-blown make-out session. Instead, she stepped back, causing me to stumble forwards. 'What happened? Where did I go wrong?'

I looked at her as she surveyed me. 'What's going on?' I screamed mentally, then paused as I saw the smile on her face spread slowly until she was grinning from ear to ear. I realized she was at least a little crazy when she started giggling hysterically. However, that didn't make me any less attracted to her. Even when she started stumbling away, the kiss replayed in my head, and I truly wished it had gone further…

My thoughts were cut short with maniacal laughter emanating from the mysterious, psychopathic "dream-girl". The laugh passed from the land of creepy straight to the world of downright freaky, and it _will_ haunt my dreams from now on: I can tell. That's how goddamn borderline-homicidal, you know what: screw borderline, that laugh sounded. I stood there, rooted to the spot, until she left my sight. It took me a moment to comprehend what had just happened. The girl, the kiss, the homicidal laughter, the- wait, WHAT THE FUCK!

**I know it sucked. So sue me.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi guys! I'm very sorry for being MIA, but I was at a sleep-away camp with a tech ban. I have decided on my update schedule: all my stories shall be updated every other Sunday night/Monday morning, with occasional bonus chapters at random times. It'll start when school does.I've been putting my Maximum Ride Stories off for a while… the updates may be sporadic until I start the schedule, and occasionally updates may come a day late... I have a very bad sense of time and dates… I'm sorry about this, but you try juggling my seven stories at one time! I have a lot of stuff planned, and given that the fact I do this in the middle of the night without my parents' knowledge, and I get extremely easily sidetracked by reading other fanfics as I "just go to check for PMs", it takes me awhile.**

Chapter 13

Phoenix

The first thing I'm aware of is the railroad spike that seems to have lodged itself into my brain. I blearily open my eyes and shut them again. The light hurts. _Hurts… like a syringe in my arm__NO! BAD THOUGHTS! _I think, focusing on my head rather than creating pain as a distraction. Slowly, I push myself into a sitting position. I force my eyes open and survey the area. _Hmm… let's see. _I was in a random clearing in a forest which I have no recollections of. _Where the fuck am I?! I can't remember anything past a couple of drinks last… Oooooohhhhh. Now I get it._ Stupid hangover. I feel too lazy and headache-y to get up, so I curl into a ball and drift in and out of consciousness for a while.

With no sense of time, I just decided to get up and move on. I opened my wings and started flying off in no particular direction, keeping all thought away as I soared high across the sky. I tired out after a while and just landed in a tree. _Tree… like ones in central park… with the fl__NO, NO, NO! BAD PHOENIX! _

_Slam! Slam! Slam!_ Head injuries can make you forget. Head injuries can kill you. Head injuries were good. Smiling was bad. Smiling is bad. I will never smile again. Instead, I'm going to hurt my head. _Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slamslamslam! _

Much better. Now my head should hurt enough to not think about the _Slam! Slam! Slam!_ Staying still is bad. Staying still makes me remember. Remembering is bad. Flying is good. Flying helps clear my head. I'm going to fly now.

I jump up and spread my slightly mangled wings. _Time to fly!_ _Flying is good! Thoughts are bad. Thoughts make me remember. Remembering hurts. Fly away, up and away! _Then, images started lashing before my eyes.

"NO, NO, NOOO!" I shrieked, gasping as the memories pulled me under.

.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.,'.

"_So are you gonna give us the food or not?" I asked, getting impatient._

"_Sadly, not, I'm afraid." He said, rather self-importantly. He gestured to the doors and two police officers came in. _Police officers or erasers? _ I wondered, but with no time to ponder started barking orders._

"_Break the glass! U&A on three! 1… 2… 3!" and the flock burst up to the ceiling. As we burst up, I couldn't resist throwing that posh little olive oil tray at them, hitting the arrogant waiter right on the nose. Chuckling inwardly, I sped to the top, broke the glass and flew to freedom. Gazzy was the last up, and paused at the edge to hurl a final loaf of bread down. I smiled at him. _Awww, that's my boy! Adorable as always. _My gaze fell on Fang. Handsome Fang, caring Fang, my rock. Fang…_

,',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',

Who deserted me. I felt the aching in my chest, the lump in my throat, and the tears pricking the corners of my eyes. Why, why? This couldn't be right! I loved him, became sappy for him! I gave my heart to him and he stomped on it, and threw it to the wolves! I dug my spikes into my wrist, my thigh, my stomach, but it didn't stop the pain. I couldn't forget. No. there was only one way to forget forever. Only one way to stop the pain. It was time to stop it forever. _It's a good thing the dead can't remember. _I thought as I plummeted towards the earth.

`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`~.`

Yes, it's short and I'm sorry. But I feel like I have to end it here… and I'm sorry that the flashback isn't quite the way it is in the book, but I'm just going by memory here. Please forgive me for procrastinating after I got back!


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi guys! I'm here and happy and for once writing in the morning! For some reason I have an obsession with the Skrillex song "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites". I've been listening to it for literally HOURS for the past two days, and I'm still not sick of it. I listen to it while I write. I listen to it when I'm bored. I listen to it when I'm happy. I listen to it when I'm sad. I listened to it at the pool. I'm listening to it right now. So… yeah. I just realized that this intro tends to be anything from an apology to a mini (*goes to restart song*) journal entry. Well, whatever.**

**Here's the next chapter of Betrayal! (Realizes how much shorter this title is then my others)**

**I just finished writing and realized how short this was. I'm sorry, but I feel like I can't go further than this in one chapter. The next one will be longer, I promise. And sorry about the cliff-hangers, but I can't help it. They're in my nature. I haven't updated in a looooong time so I'm gonna double update! Okay, that's not why I'm double updating. I wrote this a while ago and COMPLETELY forgot about it. SORRY!**

Chapter Fourteen

Phoenix

_Falling, dropping, with my wings gone limp. Feathers reaching to the sky as the wind pushes them. The pretty sky, blue with puffy white clouds. And droplets, seemingly hanging is space. What are they? Rain? Rain, like the sky's crying… no wait. I'm crying. I guess… I guess this is the end. It's the end of the line for me. My time is ending. _As I'm just about to touch the ground time seems to freeze as my entire life flashes before my eyes.

~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~.~`~

_The endless needles and tests. The maze. The failures. The stupid cages. Fang's stupid fart jokes. The freedom. Flying, soaring high above the world. Angel's, my baby's, sweet innocence. The time she read my mind and said "It's okay, I love you best too." Gazzy's wicked smile, crazy laugh, and soot streaked face. My little pyro. His sheepish grin when I realize he'd been tricking me. His ridiculous "atomic farts." Nudge's bleary eyes in the morning as I had to drag her out of bed. Her beautiful smile, her fashion sense, and her non-stop motor-mouth. The Nudge Channel: all Nudge, all that time. Iggy's inability to ACT blind. His strange ability to cook, his humor, and brotherhood pact with Gazzy in their pyro-ness. Fang's half-smirk. His ability to sneak up on me. the searing feeling of his lips on mine. The moment I realized I loved him. Ari's old self. Ari's eraser self. Ari's first death at my hands. Ari's second death due to the dreaded "Tattoo" on the back of his neck. His funeral after he died in my arms. His dying a third time, once again in my arms. Jeb's help. Jeb's hurt. Jeb freeing me. Angel's sudden bouts of evilness. Gazzy's quietness the last weeks we were together. Nudge's wish to be normal at any cost. Iggy's fury at his parents, being blind, and the world in general. Fang's other redheaded minions. Angel as she told me to get out. Gazzy's look of rejection. Nudge as she told me I was a worthless backstabber. Iggy as he asked me "How could you?" And Fang, my Fang, as he told me he never loved me. The tears. The flight. The gunshot. The School. The tests, the mazes, and worst of all the forced killing of other experiments. The pain that I could stand, the guilt that finally broke me._

I realized that forgetting really was the best option. I wanted to die with all my heart. And then it came. The crash that would end my pain. The agony that coursed through my body as the world went black. And my final word to put out into the world, laced with every sort of emotion there was.

"Goodbye." I whispered before shutting down.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey guys. First things first, I said I'd make a schedule once school started. Well, it has. But I've been finding it hard to pick up the computer and type. I'm just not the type for that sort of dedication. I'm sorry, but all plans along the lines of a schedule are scrapped to hell. I will **_**attempt **_**to update each story within a month, but past that, there's not much I can say. I really and truly have problems picking up the computer sometimes, and when I do, I find it even harder to type instead of read. I'm becoming more like a cat: lazy, violent when provoked (My mom still has the scar from my [now dead; R. I. P. Speedy {Hey, I named him when I was five, gimme a break!}] cat's first bath. He was so frickin' adorable, though.) ANYWAY, on with the chapter. Second chapter of my double update... sorry the one before this wasn't released earlier.**

* * *

Chapter 15

Phoenix

I blearily attempted to open my eyes, but my head was pounding and they stayed shut. My first coherent though was that I was alive. _Goddamnit._ How come when I _try_ to stay relatively safe, trouble come looking for me, yet when I want to die, I can't fucking kill myself. I can't really do anything. I'm bad at concentrating on anything besides blood and guts for more than ten minutes. My _second_ coherent thought was that I was somehow numb and in agony at the same time.

Vaguely aware of my surroundings, I realized there was someone touching my chest. I forced my right eye open a sliver. There was a guy… His hands were glowing green and I vaguely recognized him. It took a second to place him because everything was too vague, but then it hit me. A similar situation filled my mind. I had been shot and healed by a stranger when I left the flock…_ The flock of traitors. Those backstabbing liars should've been the ones to be shot!_ I screeched mentally. _They should feel my pain… pain… I tried to end the bad pain… he keeps… helping… me. He shouldn't try to save me. I don't want to be saved. Can't you just let me die? _A random shred of loathing for the mysterious stranger struck me. Who did he think he was, appearing and saving my life, before waltzing off without so much as an explanation?

I tried to reach up and swat his still-glowing hands away, but I was too weak. I wanted to die and that was that. _Remembering hurts too much. Pain in my body beats pain in my mind. Mental hurts too much. I have to forget… you can only remember when you're alive… I want to die. Why can't I die? Die… like the kids I killed. I killed. Children. Poor, innocent, children. It shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have happened. I'm a mistake, I need to be erased. The Erasers have been retired though… I guess I have to be ripped out. There's no one but me to do it. I guess that means I'll do it. _My thought started spiraling and my hand grabbed the nearest object. His leg. _His_ leg. _He_ is evil. He's trying to fill in where I'm gone, the pencil redoing me over and over. It started slipping down…._ Slipping away… like my life should be… but he won't let it. I guess I have to force it._

I felt a sharp, if tiny pain in my finger. Squinting, I saw the knife. I felt like I was moving through butter, but I managed to latch onto it. His attention was still on my torso, and I got the feeling that if he let himself look at what I was doing, it would fail his attempt to "save" me. Perfect. My mouth curved into a twisted impression of a grin as I brought my numb arm closer and closer to my jugular. _Jugular… that sounds like jaguar… jaguar… my first kill there was a failed jaguar… _

That was the thought that gave my hand the strength to then drive it into my throat. _Good-bye life… you are evil. I don't want to remember. Death is kind. The dead can't remember. _

Unknown Boy POV

Goddamnit. This was achingly similar to a case a couple years back. _The _Maximum Ride was shot down. Bullet grazed her heart, sent her into shock and she fell. I couldn't believe it when I heard the thump and felt the familiar feeling of someone half-dead, as she fell only forty feet from me. I remember she saved my life when I lived in France. I tried to seek her out afterwards, I wanted to join her. She was my idol. Her way of life, her devotion to her family above anything, with her cause next after that, inspired me. But I couldn't stay once I healed her. I knew it deep down. It was as if there was something inside me telling me not to, and I couldn't resist.

Now here I was, with another winged girl, fallen from the sky, who happened to fall within a couple hundred feet of me. It was kind of ridiculous how they fall close to me, as if they're attracted like magnets to me. The girl didn't seem to have any other injuries past damage from the fall, but the scars on her were extensive and those odd red ones caught my eye. I rushed to help her. I concentrated on my energy rushing into my palms, but carefully controlled it so it didn't overload her systems. Focusing on her torso, I started undoing the damage to her organs, cataloging the damage as I did.

_Spinal cord: damaged; two vertebrae fragments lodged in it. Lungs: punctured and collapsed; half filled with blood. Heart: crushed; stuck through with rib fragment. Stomach: burst; signs of starvation and alcohol abuse- Wait, alcohol abuse?_ The glow emitting from my palms faltered slightly, and I quickly set back to work and brought my full concentration on the task at hand before she died. Sweat dripped down my forehead as I finished off with her liver. On to the broken bones. There was a slight slap on my thigh, but I kept my attention on the girl's body. Slight drag at my thigh. _Ignore. It. _I commanded. I couldn't lose concentration, or the effects would be reversed or skewed. The latter would be unlikely, but it was possible. I remember the first time it had happened. It was only something minor, a broken leg, but the girl was never able to walk again. She died two days later in a fight.

It wasn't until a few seconds when I felt the strain of injury renew. It wasn't someone else, but this girl somehow is practically dead. I stopped, to see her bony hand around a- my- knife, which was stuck in her throat, straight through her spinal cord, blood gushing everywhere. _Crap! Seconds left! _This had only happened once before, and the he didn't make it. It took a second more than I had to remove the blade and start healing.

I slung the blade out of her neck and start channeling the energy. I was exhausted, but I had enough to get her through this but I'd probably pass out afterwards. They'll find us. Oh well. Slowly, the wound closed and her skin returned. _All her organs were fine and her blood was at a good enough level to survive. Her fractures and breaks can wait…_ I thought before the tunnel vision I had gotten faded to full black.

* * *

**My writing seems to be getting crappier and crappier...**


	16. Hello World

Hello World!

I still exist!

I'm very sorry that this went on for so long, But I'm returning.

I will be continuing this, and within a couple weeks (though I'm trying for five days), you'll actually have a new chapter. However, I will not be stating my other stories just yet. You guys are really awesome, and this is my first story, so this comes first. Thank you to everyone who has waited patiently for this, I love you guys. Virtual cookie to you all.

-Ghibly


	17. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! !

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAANNDDDD- my computer randomly shut down RIGHT as I finished the chapter.

Right then.

And I forgot to save.

Go ahead and punch me.

I'm very sorry, but I need more time. Give me a few more days. I'm busy, my home life is crap right now, but I MUST GET OUT OF THIS SLUMP!


	18. Chapter 16

**Looking back on this, I realize that I have matured and the story will change a good deal. I'm afraid the space between my updates will be far too long to anyone's liking. If you feel the need to motivate me for being an ass-lazy bitch, PM me. I tend to get scared my corner of the internet will start hating me. Also, PM me if you choose between the following:**

**1. VERY SPORADIC ****long**** updates**

**2. SLIGHTLY MORE CONSISTANT ****short**** updates- like this thing**

**I've sort of not loved these things as much as I used to. If someone wants to adopt, I'm not adverse to it. If everyone says "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!", I won't, but I promise that if I do, it'll go to a good author who'll love it and cherish it and has good grammar and isn't a piece of shit.**

Reed stared at the girl currently occupying his bed. It was his turn to watch her in case she woke up, as Rex had warned them that she had tried to kill herself while he was healing her. After he woke up from the mini-coma he put himself into, that is. He could see the many scars marring her body, burns, black line, and pale slashes. Pinpricks from needles and swathes where bones broke through the skin. Slashes on her temples to mess with her brain to add powers. The skin pulled tight over her fragile form, starved almost to death. He could tell just by the feel of her- so broken, gone- that she had no will to live. She'd suffered far too much. Running his fingers over the raised skin across his throat, he realized she was like him. Broken, an outsider. He'd do whatever he could to aid in her recovery.

He had to admit, her murmuring about death and the flock and the reoccurring "bad" nonsense was getting slightly disturbing, but he'd watch her. He'd wiped enough lives from the map and had made it his purpose to try and do the opposite. The girl, he could tell she was beautiful- not quite in the conventional way- her jaw line too hard and her nose too protruding for that. Her skin was pale, the scarring very light on her face, her eyebrows arched perfectly, long eyelashes fluttering occasionally revealing bright red eyes. Once she put on some weight, she'd look stunning.

His eyes flickered onto the spikes protruding from her knuckles. Decently grafted, yet so crude. From the rings of burned tissue around them, they were obviously very painful when first attached. Looking to the clock, he realized that it was late, and Tammi would not be happy to get up now. Her watch could wait till morning, he didn't mind. Easing into a more comfortable position, his half-lidded eyes went back to the book that sat open in his lap. She'd most likely be asleep for a week, given her condition and her injuries, but she could wake up tomorrow. With mutants, it was always hard to tell.

**While this is not complete and a REALLY FUCKING SHORT CHAPTER, I decided to show you this thing which I do not feel motivated in the slightest to finish. PMing me angry rants may help, I'm not sure. Sorry, but for a while, you'll not get much from me. **


	19. Chapter 16-5

**I'm going to go for daily mini updates, for now. I'm thinking that a 1,500 word to 2,000 word is good for weekly. Daily is more like 300-600, 700 if I'm bored, and give me Sundays and Mondays off. I'm most likely going to end up with bi-weekly soon. I'm If you want any of this changed, feel free to PM me, and I'll be happy to. I know this is TINY, but I'm busy and love cliffhangers. **

**Someone reviewed saying that "Max doesn't go crazy. Period." Max is a hugely moral person, and wants to save everyone and everything. While this is disputed in Nevermore, I try hard to erase that book from my memory. If you like it, I apologize (if you're insulted, anyways). Anyhoo, she was given two choices, or rather three- **

**One- Kill them as painlessly as possible**

**Two- Let the whitecoats torture them to death**

**Three- Try to protect them and get both of them tortured to death.**

**Even subtracting Max/Phoenix out of the situation, the best thing for them is to kill them, so that's what Max does. And then she blames herself. She just murdered a child. And then she did it over and over again. **

Bleary noises. Light shining through my eyelids. Vague sensations of a blanket. I'm not dead. Why am I not dead? I should be dead. Not dead. This isn't hell. Isn't death better? I'm impure. A monster. Phoenixes are pure. I'm not. Death is right. Too much blood. My hands must be cleansed. Red blood, thick blood, my blood, their blood, staining everything. Blood to right bloodshed. Death… release and punishment, for the pain, for the deaths. The first one, the jaguar, the last one, the baby lizard, the ones that wouldn't die, the ones that died quickly, for the children I killed. This phoenix won't rise from its bloody ashes, not this time.

My hand reached out to touch the side, touching the wall. I could hear a presence in the room, deep breathing, interspersed with light snores. Asleep. Good. My eyes opened, and I scanned the room. There was very little in there, scuffs on the floor marked where furniture had been dragged out. Nothing but a heavy set of drawers, the bed I was on, and a wooden chair were in the room. A tanned-looking girl with bubblegum pink hair was sprawled on it, stirring slightly. Light sleeper. Not good. I braced my hands on the wall. Blood was going to be spilled.

It had to happen fast, and hard. The healer. The girl. The _healer_. I wasn't dead. I would be dead. Should be dead. I'm bad. So very bad. And not dead.

That would be corrected soon.

**Right as I'm about to post it- HOLY CRAP THAT'S A LOT OF REVIEWS!**

**Thank you all so much for this, I love you guys, gimme a huggle. Seriously, you guys are all amazing, and thank you for sticking with me through my dead period of depressing home-life and lack of inspiration. **

**Here's a little drabble that I started and ended up finishing and editing it for school:**

** www .fictionpress /s /3113828 /1/ Death**

**Remove the five spaces, and you get it. Tell me if you want me to turn it into a story.**

**Love you all and I apologize for... this... Well, in my defense, it was meant to be the continuation of last chapter. Bye.**


	20. FUCK

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH FUUUUUCCKKKKKK!**

**My computer was being a jerk, I had to do weird shit (read: let it do it's weird shit), and I think I may have clicked something, because now "WIndows Installer" can't install microsoft word. So I can't open anything I've ever typed on this computer. **

**It says I have to contact service personnel. What the fuck? Why can I not fix this from home? Oh god, how the fuck am I supposed to deal with this.**

**I'm out of school now. Which means I cant use the computers there.**

**People. Updates...**

**Updates may not happen for a decently loooooooong while.**

**I'm really fucking sorry.**


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